Traceability may generally be understood to be the ability to keep track of and further verify the history, location, application, or other information, of one or more items along a distribution or supply chain. Traceability has become a vital aspect of business in many industries. For example, traceability is a critical aspect for companies that want to provide consumers with product transparency. In particular, a consumer may be interested in knowing specific information about a product they either purchased or are interested in purchasing. In the instance of food, a consumer may want to know the origin of the food product, as well as who produced it, and how it was produced. Additionally, traceability has important aspects for product safety, such as in the food and other industries. For example, the globalization of the food industry and the relative ease with which food commodities are transported through and between countries and continents requires precise monitoring of the movement of a food product within a supply chain. One of the key reasons this is such a critical point is in instances where an issue of contamination arises, and a recall is required. Where traceability has been closely adhered to, it is possible to identify which food products must be recalled by tracing of the contaminated product back through the supply chain so as to determine the origin of the contamination, as well as identity which food products are safe, potentially saving millions of dollars in the recall process.
Many traceability systems utilize barcoded labels as a means of identifying and distinguishing goods through the supply chain. In most instances, individual items are barcoded and then followed through the supply chain based on tracking of the associated barcode. Current traceability solutions utilized in the food industry, for example, may be based on industrial infrastructure, as well as current technology, that is found in well-developed and established markets (e.g., U.S., Brazil, etc.). Such systems generally employ on-site barcode implementation and management, which includes the process of generating barcode labels with barcode-specific software and printers, including embedding information on the barcode and printing the barcode label, affixing barcode labels to the associated products, and subsequent tracking of barcoded products with logistics computing software.
A problem with such traceability systems is that such systems generally require technology that may be unavailable or may be limited in many parts of the world, particularly in certain developing countries, which otherwise have a large agricultural presence in the marketplace. For example, certain food products, such as coffee, are grown and harvested in developing countries. Coffee may exchange hands numerous times over the course of movement from a point of origin (e.g., farmer) all the way through to the final exchange with a consumer (e.g., sale of cup of coffee). Accordingly, it is crucial to begin tracking coffee at the point of origin (e.g., where it is grown and harvested) so as to provide comprehensive traceability. However, in many instances, developing areas in which coffee is grown and harvested lack sufficient access to the technology required for on-site barcode implementation and management, which prevent implementation of traceability technology at the origin of a supply chain.